Advanced

Fundraising

Workshop

for VC, PE and Financial Professionals

Graham Roberts-Phelps

Advanced fundraising workshop

2

Overview

Attracting new funds, capital and investment, whether

from new or existing investors does not just ‘happen’

and deals don’t just appear. They are organised and

driven by one or more interested parties. Research

shows that the party who controls and drives the

process achieves a better result than a simple analysis

of their position would suggest.

This highly-practical skills-based training workshop will

benefit all those who are involved in approaching, pitching, presenting or negotiating new funding

and investment opportunities. This includes winning brand new investors and developing new

revenue from existing clients, contacts or prospects. It is suitable for all levels and types of finance

and investment professionals.

Key benefits

These are some things that participants will be able do better, quicker, faster or to a higher level.

This practical and interactive event will provide participants with the proven strategies and tactics

to build, manage and successfully close a sustainable and increased new funding and business

pipeline. Target learning benefits include:

1. Increased impact of your new pitch, presentations and proposals leading to faster decisions

and increased conversion.

2. Set and achieve the right level of telephone and networking activity to achieve your funding

goals and build into a solid CRM-based process.

3. Greater confidence, consistency and professionalism throughout the business development

process, especially around pitching and negotiation.

4. Enhanced questioning skills and techniques, leading to better and faster development of

investor needs, problems, value and expectations.

5. Improve your people, communication, influence and persuasion skills when approaching,

consulting or presenting your services and solutions.

6. How to self-generate new business leads, appointments and opportunities without

excessive spending on marketing or advertising.

7. Three C’s Value message (Clear, Compelling and Credible): Be better able differentiate

your firm, solutions, track-record and expertise clearly and accurately with tailored value

statements for each stage and for each opportunity.

8. Negotiation strategies and tactics for closing deals quicker decisions and greater

investment satisfaction.

9. Understand the structure and process of negotiation and plan effectively for negotiations,

controlling complex negotiations.

10. Carrying post-deal analysis to learn and move forward in future deals and negotiations.

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Programme Outline, example two day course

1. Introduction, personal objectives and key principles

- Introduction and review of pre-course work - personal learning objectives and key principles

- Defining your initial value proposition and comparative advantage.

- Profiling your ideal investor in detail and understanding why they might be right for your offer and proposition.

- Presentation by participants: Personal fundraising improvement goals

2. Approaching by telephone – best practice review

- Cold-calling turned into warm calling: Planning the call, telephone techniques, integrating with email, online tool.

- Master the secret of effective appointment making – organised persistence and to set and achieve the right level of telephone activity to achieve your appointment goals.

- Be able to overcome most common put-off’s to seeing or engaging with you and how best to get past gatekeepers and assistants more effectively.

- Make calls with improved confidence, control and results and the five keys to developing an engaging telephone voice and manner.

Planning and practice session: Cold and warm calling

3. Rapport skills for new investor or fundraising contacts

- How to best to do your research before the meeting and the first few minutes – ways to gain instant rapport and setting the foundation for a successful outcome in a first call.

- How to structure an effective first time fundraising call or meeting – the subtle differences that are important to master.

- How best to differentiate your solutions and build credibility and enthusiasm early or at the start of the buying process.

- Overcoming buying initial resistance and relaxing the prospect; gaining rapport, opening the meeting: Using AIDA and gaining agreement to the next stage.

Planning and practice session: Connecting – first meeting with a new contact

4. Identifying investment and information needs and preferences

- Understanding the power of high-impact and third-level questions to influence people based around specific needs and solutions.

- The importance of body language and other personal communication dynamics when asking questions; empathic listening, run-on questions, drawing out skills, summarizing, etc.

- Creating a ‘disturb’ approach to creating needs and opportunities and positioning your solutions.

Using proven advanced fundraising questioning techniques with greater skill: Outcome, criteria and qualification questions.

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'Decision making criteria' – tools to help you develop this with the investor and in doing so progress your fundraising opportunities more accurately.

Planning and practice session: Questioning skills for investor qualification and need

building.

5. Fundraising presentation and persuading skills practice

- Substance and style – selecting the right tone and content to engage and enthuse your prospective investor.

- Compelling benefits and reducing perceived risk – key messages to deliver when presenting numbers and data

- Helping the investor choose your proposition – by being more convincing, compelling and credible.

- Professional and effective fundraising presentation skills – with personal coaching and practice sessions.

- The keys of influence and persuasive and the five keys to convincing a new investor to choose you.

Planning and practice session: Role-play in presenting your solution.

6. Negotiation and achieving a win-win

- Identifying the key players, positions and issues to help set your negotiation approach.

- Managing the negotiation process and applying the five modes of negotiation effectively.

- Creating currencies, options and variables to base your negotiations on.

- Ways to ask for commitment professionally and effectively and how best to isolate, priorities and answer objections and concerns within the negotiation phase.

- Key negotiations skills around the closing process – getting to yes.

- Planning and practice session: Closing and negotiation skills.

7. Assessed role-play – Negotiation final practice session

Using a detailed scenario participants take part in a structured role-play to practice and

apply proven negotiation skills when closing a deal. With feedback, review and comment.

8. Summary

Personal action plan and learning summary.

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Trainers

Graham Phelps

Over the last twenty years Graham has personally trained or

coached over 25,000 business professionals in over 30

countries and hundreds of organisations, including many of the

World’s largest and most successful companies.

Graham Phelps has a solid background in IT systems, financial

markets and business services. Over twenty years he

established a successful track-record as a top-performing

Account Manager, Fundraising Manager and Fundraising and

Marketing Director with organisations including Hoskyns PLC,

the Pearson Group and most recently Head of Fundraising

Performance (Europe) for Thomson Reuters.